At times in tournament play, you will find that it is not always correct to play in the most mathematically optimal way. This will happen late in tournaments when an otherwise correct play should be avoided in order for you to avoid busting out. Once the end of the tournament is near, there is more of an opportunity for you to convert your chips into a part of the prize structure. In these instances, you would not want to risk losing all of your chips over a marginally correct play.
Let’s look at an example. If you are dealt two clubs and the flop comes with two more clubs, you have a roughly 3-1 chance of hitting your flush. Basic pot odds would say that if you are getting better than 3-1 odds from the amount bet into the hand in comparison to what you have contributed, then you should play. But if you are on the bubble in a tournament, doing so means that you will lose 2 out of those three times—and thus miss out on winning a prize. This is especially true if you are not the chip leader. Avoiding a coin flip like this will allow you to advance to the next stage of the tournament and be much more likely to win prize money.
As you can see, tournament play differs greatly from ring games. This is because while the above example is correct in tournaments, it is wrong in a ring game. In a ring game, you theoretically have an infinite bankroll, while in tourneys, if you lose all of your chips, you are out.